Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Status of the Spent Fuel Pool of Unit 4

[122metalmaniak221]

Ou shit I would like go to fukusima(I from slovakie :D [this is problem])

[Sindretonnesen]

guy that filmed this shit must be pretty fucked up about now

[xygomorphic44]

These fuel rods will have to stay in this pool or 3-5 years (probably more since they were recently active and produce more heat than spent fuel rods) before they can be removed without risk of overheating. Its important to remove them because the water from the pool is evaporating and the high alkaline content of the water speeds up corrosion.

[shadyman2000]

Looks fine to me. Wrap it up and go home.

[donnydillon]

talk about your FME

[MezmerEyes1992]

im an fme monitor at Davis besse nuclear power plant @donnydillon

[kappelmeister123]

@MezmerEyes1992 didn;t one of the davis besse units have a cracked pressure vessel a few years back?

[intrptr]

Look again at :30. Portions of a whole group of fuel racks have dissolved away leaving nearby racks damaged at the base. This was May. Any new links to this fuel pool? Bubbles mean above 100c temps (boiling). Not OK like stated elsewhere on here. Water is not circulating either. Maybe stopped for this inspection? Also, further melting will continue in stages or cycles as portions of fuel racks collapse further causing more local smaller melts within the vast storage pool. This vid is scary...

[Tekknorg]

An MOX reactor can be an atomic bomb and it produces radioactive waste. In about 1980 Gian-Carlo Pinchera, an Italian nuclear physicist, showed that fast reactors were inherently unsafe. That single conference paper led to the almost total abandonment of the fast breeder programme. This is accepted by the International Advertising Agency for Atomic Energy: The IAEA in Vienna.

[hoganiancinema00]

thos rod assembles are fine. as long as they can stablize that water level here it will be fine, however everything in there is going to rust to fuk

[dieselclam]

From the various recent revelations coming out of Tepco, it sounds like they knew they had a full scale melt down with rods melting off and falling into the bottom of the reactor vessel in less than 4 hours in unit 1. I appreciate the education on "corium" as that sounds exactly like what they now have. I also appreciate your positive attitude in finding solutions. Hopefully, those on site will come up with innovative solutions quickly- too many lives at risk already.

[caddotservices]

'dieselclam We'll learn from it, yeah right !

[dadhadit]

@caddotservices doubtful very doubtful there are chemical plants right now sit on earthquake fault lines in the United States of America. But if there is a design agenda for population reduction it has become more clear of that agenda whether are not you believe it this conspiracy this must be considered for the careless actions of the individuals for profit building these chemical nightmares when there is alternative energy sources that are refusing to be promoted to their ultimate capacity

[Timoshenko260]

@dieselclam I stand corrected as far as the FSAR goes. However, I do know that a modified version of the NUHOMS system is used at INL to store fuel from TMI-2 . Granted, core damage at TMI-2 was less than an Fukushima, but I reject the idea that it is "impossible" to safely transport the fuel to long term storage/vitrification or reprocessing.

[dieselclam]

@Timoshenko260 I'm not saying it's "impossible" because given time and money, they will come up with something- they HAVE to. The vids of the debris in the pools as well as the structural condition of the buildings and the admitted core met downs makes it pretty clear that this is NOT going to be any kind of S.O.P. situation. How they will collect the puked up pellets remains a mystery, but some sort of suction system will probably be a partial answer. Thanks for the canister info.

[Timoshenko260]

@dieselclam I agree with you that it will be far from a standard procedure. They were probably outside of the procedural operation once they went beyond 8 hours of station blackout. I think that the fuel, at least in unit 1, is not in pellet form anymore, but probably in a the form of "corium", which is a term used to describe the solidified mass of molten fuel, cladding, and control rods combined. One silver lining is that we will gain valuable information about post-accident mitigation.

[ToolFan68]

Everything's just fine. Now just shut your eyes and go to sleep.

[deranaloge]

Don´t worry about radiation ! :-) Nuclear lobby says : Life has mutated since many million years and has no problem with radiation . It is evolution of life and normal ! Life needs radiation ! BUT my Bible I read : ( in the beginning and creation : 1. Genesis 1 .... ) : "And God saw that it was good" . ( Vers 26 ) " "And God saw everything that he made , and behold , it was very good" ( Vers 31 ) . Radiation can never be good ! CAUTION ! Evolution theory is an invention of nuclear lobby !!

[Nottidredd]

poor FME control

[QuantumKaon]

@Nottidredd

ROFL!

Actually on second thought, it's not that funny :(

[uploadJ]

Hmm ... production of gas bubbles; that can't be good ...

.

[QuantumKaon]

@uploadJ

Spent fuel pool bubbling is normal. It is caused by localized nucleate boiling (good), and also possibly the neutron poison rack material (normal).

[LeLutinDuSud]

MOX is a poison. Mox is a French invention.

French Areva society is saying it's the best choise of energy for the future

President Sarkosy says the same

I hope a nuclear accident never become a reality, for exemple at the nuclear plant near Paris.

The next génération must leave with this death present of inconscients persons

[uploadJ]

@LeLutinDuSud "MOX is a poison. Mox is a French invention."

You're aware, that after awhile Plutonium appears in the fuel rods by normal nuclear processes?

And, the reason spent fuel is 'processed', to harvest that Plutoniums for atomic bomb use?

You knew all that right?

.

[dieselclam]

Well, isn't that special- love the twisted stairway sitting on top of the rods. BTW, 14 years worth of rods in that pool, some of them contain MOX fuel. The close up shots makes it appear that there's still a LOT of heat being generated. Keep in mind that damaged rods cannot be put into "permanent" fuel rod storage casks because they are distorted. Makes me wonder if they can even be pulled out of the racks in the pool. If not, plan on decades of pumping water into the pool...and ocean.

[etbadaboum]

@dieselclam If no close-loop circuit can put into place.

[Timoshenko260]

@dieselclam Not sure where you got your nuclear engineering degree from, but damaged fuel assemblies can be stored in dry cask storage. Look, for example, in the FSAR for the Transnuclear NUHOMS system (if you have access to it). It is designed to accommodate both damaged and undamaged fuel assemblies. And they certainly can be put into a long-term repository, since that involves fuel vitrification (fuel assembly is completely dismantled during this process).

[dieselclam]

@Timoshenko260 TRANSNUCLEAR WEST

STANDARDIZED NUHOMS® SYSTEM

NUHOMS®-61BT

DRY SHIELDED CANISTER

SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT section 8.1.1 "damaged" is defined as pin holes and hairline cracks and cladding damage in otherwise intact fuel rods. Fukushima has thousands (MILLIONS?) of uncontained fuel pellets and bent, twisted and 30%+ melted rods that are now like spaghetti in the reactors or pools. There's no way to safely retrieve, transport, vitrify, or store other than as & where they are.

[dieselclam]

@Timoshenko260 Also see section 3.4 F3.2 "previously damaged fuel as

specified in Table K.2-2, may not be stored in the NUHOMS®-61BT DSC"

[ApolloWasReal]

@dieselclam I really wonder where people are getting their information. EVERY nuclear reactor contains plutonium, even those fueled only with uranium. I don't see what's so special about MOX except that people have an irrational fear of the word "plutonium". It's not even close to being the most toxic material known. That honor falls to botulinum toxin, which millions of people every year have voluntarily injected into their bodies for purely cosmetic purposes.

[dieselclam]

@ApolloWasReal So because people inject themselves with rotten green beans, breathing plutonium particulate is safe? Get real. The presence of uncontained and irretrievable MOX makes the logistics of cooling, containing and storing on site very difficult in structurally damaged cooling pools that are filled with building debris. What happens when pools 3 and 4 collapse in ruins?

[ApolloWasReal]

@dieselclam Reread what I said. EVERY light water reactor burning uranium also produces and burns plutonium from the U-238 that makes up most of the fuel. An equilibrium is reached such that about 1/3 of the power comes from plutonium fission. So there's little difference between a MOX-fueled plant and an ordinary uranium-fueled nuclear plant; both contain plutonium. But the MOX plant destroys weapons grade plutonium, which is a good thing.

[dieselclam]

@ApolloWasReal Your point is valid and taken. The info I'd heard was that the MOX was fairly new fuel, obviously having a jump start on the amount of plutonium and the concern was that it was hotter and going to take longer in a cooling pool than would be expected in strictly U-238 rods of EQUAL AGE. But either way, it's a mess that is going to take too long and cost too much money and the end result will be a piss poor solution. That's a foregone conclusion for emergencies. Thanks-

[ApolloWasReal]

@dieselclam Sure, it's a big mess and it will take too long to clean up. But we'll learn from it, and the chances of this happening again will decrease as a result. We have to -- we simply don't have the luxury to ignore any energy source that doesn't produce net CO2.